Fiber optic technologies may be used to transmit signals of various types from an external telecommunications network to a customer premises. The signals which can be multiplexed and transmitted over an optical fiber may include, but are not limited to, voice telephone signals, television/video signals or data. Unlike many other technologies, an optical fiber does not provide power for signal demultiplexing, signal conversion or signal transmission to customer equipment. In addition, an optical signal is not typically suitable for direct connection to customer equipment. Therefore, an optical network terminal (ONT) is used to terminate the fiber optic line at the premises and demultiplex the optical signal into its component parts for subsequent transmission into the premises over many types of non-optical transmission medium. An ONT may have as an input a single optical fiber in communication with various external network elements. In addition, as used herein, an ONT is any device that terminates fiber from the network for the purpose of communications. Point-to-Point optical access and WDM technologies can utilize an ONT as can PON (Passive Optical Network) technologies such as APON, BPON, EPON, GPON, NGPON2 and similar communications technologies.
The output from the ONT may include one or more unshielded twisted pairs of copper wire or Category 3 cabling for the transmission of voice telephone services or data, one or more Category 5, 5e, 6, 6e, 7 or another multi-wire cabling outputs for the transmission of voice, data or video and/or one or more coaxial cable outputs for the transmission of data, voice or video signals to equipment within the customer premises.
In many instances, an ONT is included within a network interface device (NID). A NID is typically implemented as a relatively small weather-proof box mounted on or near the outside of a building, which serves as the demarcation point between a service provider's network and a customer's in-premises equipment.
With respect to a NID including an ONT however, the device must derive its power from the customer premises electrical supply in some fashion. Thus, the services of an electrician and/or the installation of additional power cabling becomes necessary to provide power to the ONT. Furthermore, many homes built in the past include only in-wall unshielded twisted pair phone lines or Category 3 twisted-pair cabling which terminates in a conventional telephone NID and provides only for basic telephone services. These somewhat older homes, do not have preinstalled in-wall Category 5, 6 or 7 data cabling and/or in-wall coaxial cable networks. Accordingly, retrofitting such homes with an ONT designed to provide broadband data services or high quality video requires substantial cable installation between the ONT and interior of the customer premises. Re-cabling a customer's premises can be expensive, time consuming and intrusive.
Hence, there is a need for solutions that can overcome the above and other technical hurdles to enable an ONT to be provided and powered at a customer location with minimal cost, minimal intrusion and minimal additional cabling.